Mostly About Organized Crime

02/08/2014

One-time highflying Fort Lauderdale lawyer Scott Rothstein accused Charlie Crist of selling judgeships while serving as Florida governor during courtroom testimony this week in an unrelated case as reported by Marc Caputo for the Miami Herald: "Crist had tapped Rothstein to the Judicial Nominating Commission for the Fourth District Court of Appeal and the Broward Circuit Court," and "under oath, Rothstein portrayed the former Republican governor, Crist, as someone who essentially sold 'a few' unspecified Broward County circuit court judicial appointments in return for political contributions."

Predictably, Crist denies the allegations as he runs to get his old job back, and his campaign dismisses Rothstein as a convicted felon with no credibility who is looking for a reduced sentence as a cooperating witness with federal prosecutors investigating political corruption in South Florida. Rothstein ran a $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme involving his law firm as a front to sell phony legal settlements to investors, and got fifty years in prison for the crime.

No doubt Rothstein is a fraudster but at least some of his allegations in other matters have proven true with corroborating evidence.

For example, Rothstein cooperated with the FBI in a sting which resulted in the bust of Miami Beach wine merchant Roberto Settineri whom U.S. and Italian authorities suspect is an intermediary between the Gambino crime family and the Santa Maria de Gesu clan from Cosa Nostra or the Sicilian Mafia. Settineri was sentenced in November 2010 to four years in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering.

And Crist is hardly in the position to challenge another's credibility. The former Governor is aptly called Charlie Hypocrist in the Sunshine State because he's a political chamelon and unprincipled opportunist who changes his parties and positions more frequently than Sybil changes her personality.

03/08/2013

The defendants allegedly bilked timeshare owners across the nation out of $5 million by "claiming to have
buyers for their unwanted vacation rentals" but "federal authorities
have been unable to find a single instance in which [they] actually lined up the purchase of a timeshare."

Among those charged is Pasquale "Posh" Pappalardo who "would boast about having
ties with organized crime and twice had meetings with a representative
of the Gambino organized crime family to discuss timeshare resale
operations" according to federal prosecutors.

The telemarketing company operated out of an "unmarked Fort Lauderdale storefront sandwiched between a men's bath house and a dry cleaner," and "bank records show that among the people who received payments from the
company was Roberto Settineri, a Miami Beach wine merchant who the U.S.
Attorney's Office said has acted as an intermediary between a Sicilian
Mafia crime family and the Gambino crime family in New York" as previously reported by Jon Burstein for the Sun Sentinel.

Settineri was sentenced in November 2010 to four years in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering in an unrelated matter involving convicted Ponzi schemer Scott Rothstein.

11/13/2012

The Gambino crime family allegedly is strengthening its ties
to the old country, and the supposed move may prove its undoing under a
recently issued Executive Order by President Barack Obama which authorizes the
Treasury Department to designate transnational crime groups in order to freeze
their U.S. assets and ban American citizens and companies from conducting business
with them.

The Treasury Department through its Office of Foreign Assets
Control was granted the authority to take enforcement action against designated
transnational crime groups under Executive Order 13581 issued on July 24, 2011 pursuant
to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, and in an accompanying
statement President Obama said the following:

The activities of significant transnational criminal organizations . . . have reached such scope and
gravity that they threaten the stability of international political and
economic systems. Such organizations are becoming increasingly
sophisticated and dangerous to the United States; they are increasingly
entrenched in the operations of foreign governments and the
international financial system, thereby weakening democratic
institutions, degrading the rule of law, and undermining economic
markets. These organizations facilitate and aggravate violent civil
conflicts and increasingly facilitate the activities of other dangerous
persons. I therefore determine that significant transnational criminal
organizations constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the
national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States, and
hereby declare a national emergency to deal with that threat.

In the eighteen
months since Executive Order 13581 was issued several transnational crime
groups have been put on the Treasury Department's blacklist including the
Yakuza from Japan, the Camorra or Neapolitan Mafia in Italy, Mexican drug cartel Los Zetas and Central America's Mara
Salvatrucha or MS-13.

Perhaps the Gambino
crime family may be next. Although all five of New York's Mafia families
allegedly have ties to the Sicilian Mafia the Gambinos reportedly are most
deeply entrenched with their overseas paesanos. Apparently several of its reputed leaders "have
strong ties to Sicily" including through the Palermo-based Inzerillo clan as
reported by Ed Scarpo for Cosa Nostra News.
A Wikipedia entry for the "Inzerillo-Gambino Mafia clan" claims it "is a transatlantic Mafia family, based in Palermo and New York City," and further alleges:

In Sicily, the family clan is centered around the Inzerillo, the Spatola and Di Maggio families, while in the United States the Sicilian faction in the Gambino crime family is the core of the group. The Inzerillo clan hailed from the Passo di Ragano neighbourhood in Palermo. They were relatives of New York City Mafia boss Carlo Gambino.

The supposed Gambino and Inzerillo alliance in the past allegedly has been involved in the global heroin trade. Moreover, U.S. and Italian law enforcement previously have alleged ties
between the Gambino
crime family and the Santa Maria di Gesu clan from the Sicilian Mafia as
reported by Bob Norman for Broward-Palm Beach New Times.

A U.S.-entrenched crime group can be designated on the black list since the criteria is only that it have a foreign component with an adverse impact to the United States. Executive Order 13581 defines a "transnational criminal organization" as a group of persons . . . that includes one or more foreign persons; that engages in an ongoing pattern of serious criminal activity involving the jurisdictions of at least two foreign states; and that threatens the national security, foreign policy, or economy of the United States." Accordingly, in designating MS-13 which originated in Los Angeles, CA as a transnational criminal organization, the Treasury
Department stated last month in its press release that "MS-13 is active within the United States,
with at least 8,000 members operating in more than 40 states and the District
of Columbia," and "money generated by local MS-13 cliques in the U.S. is
consolidated and funneled to the group's leadership in El Salvador."

There's no doubt that the Treasury Deparment is continuing to make its
black list for transnational criminal organizations and checking it
twice. The program was launched only eighteen months ago, and is
obviously incomplete. For example, although the Camorra or Neapolitan
Mafia is designated, La Cosa Nostra or the Sicilian Mafia and the
'Ndrangheta or Calabrian Mafia are glaring omissions since they have a
more substantial impact on the United States. Indeed, when La Cosa
Nostra and the 'Ndrangheta likely are added, don't be surprised to see
the accompanying designation of some reputed U.S.-based mobsters and
crime families for their alleged entanglement with these Italian
criminal organizations.

Designating
the Gambino crime family as a transnational criminal organization would financially
squeeze it out of existence. All the U.S. bank
accounts, real estate and business concerns which are affiliated with its
purported members and associates would be frozen, and no American could engage in
any financial or business transactions with them. In one fell swoop the Treasury Department
through the Office of Foreign Assets Control would do more to undermine the
Gambino crime family than more than fifty years of criminal prosecutions.

09/16/2012

Apparently she's a bit like Gollum from The Lord of the Rings, and she must have the precious.

Kim Rothstein, the wife of convicted Ponzi schemer Scott Rothstein, has been charged by federal prosecutors in Fort Lauderdale, FL with "conspiring to hide more than $1 million in jewelry from federal authorities," and "among the items was a 12.08-carat fancy intense yellow diamond ring" as reported by Jon Burstein for the Sun Sentinel.

Scott Rothstein ran a $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme involving his law firm as a front to sell phony legal settlements to investors, and he alleged pervasive public corruption and organized crime in South Florida during deposition testimony last December "arising from the bankruptcy of Rothstein's shuttered law firm, Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler, and various
lawsuits filed by investors" as then reported by Jon Burstein for the Sun Sentinel:

"We were involved in public corruption with politicians," said Rothstein in transcripts of his Dec. 14 testimony released early Friday evening. "We were involved in public corruption with law enforcement. We were involved in activities with mob-related individuals. We were involved in activities involving the physical threats of other individuals. We were involved in the public corruption side of purchasing of political positions. We were involved in the manipulation of the judiciary."

Rothstein was sentenced to fifty years in prison but likely will get a reduction based on his cooperation with the FBI in a sting which resulted in the bust of Miami Beach, FL wine merchant Roberto Settineri whom U.S. and Italian authorities suspect is an intermediary between the Gambino crime family and the Santa Maria de Gesu clan from Cosa Nostra or the Sicilian Mafia. Settineri was sentenced in November 2010 to four years in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering.

The feds should declare South Florida a racketeering enterprise and put the region under receivership if Scott Rothstein is to be believed.